


The Element of Surprise

by Spinofflady



Series: Race to the Edge [10]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9068494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinofflady/pseuds/Spinofflady
Summary: Astrid expected her eighteenth birthday to be memorable, but not in the way it turned out. No one even seems to remeber it!





	1. Chapter 1

Fall on Dragon’s Edge was always a busy time. Preparations for winter had to be made; leaves had to be cleared, among other things. But after the trees were bare and everything was ready to be covered in snow, the Dragon Riders had another event to prepare for: the birthday of one Astrid Hofferson.

This birthday, in particular, was special. It was her eighteenth birthday, and it was also the first birthday to be had on Dragon’s Edge. No one really said much about it though, as there was so much work to be done, and it was basically forgotten, except on Hiccup’s part.

He had never forgotten Astrid’s birthday since he was old enough to know what a birthday was. He had put plenty of thought into what could be done to celebrate the occasion, but failed to produce an idea he liked. So after many scrapped plans, he sought the help of Catia and Heather, the night before the big day. He had perhaps procrastinated a bit.

He found the two girls washing the dinner dishing in the clubhouse chatting pleasantly about the proper way to slaughter pigs. It was a conversation that only the two of them could possibly keep lighthearted.

“Do you need any help?” Hiccup asked, walking into the room.

Catia glanced around. “I don’t think so,” she replied. “We’re almost finished. Thanks anyway.”

“Are you sure? I don’t have anything else to do.”

Heather stopped scrubbing and looked up at him. “Alright, what do you want?”

Hiccup sighed heavily and sat down in one of the chairs. “Help,” he groaned. “Just help.”

“With what?” Catia chuckled at his dramatic display.

“Astrid’s birthday is tomorrow, and I want to do something really nice for her. But have no ideas whatsoever.”

“Her birthday is tomorrow?” Catia asked. “I didn’t have any idea when it was, or I would’ve done something myself.”

“Same,” Heather nodded. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”

“Okay, can we focus more on the help side of this,” Hiccup begged. “I have less than 24 hours to do something.”

“How much help do you need?” Heather asked, setting her pot on a towel to dry. “Throw her a party and get her a present. It’s that simple.”

“But I’m terrible at parties!” Hiccup cringed at how whinny he sounded.

“That’s because you aren’t a girl,” Catia told him. “Girls throw better parties for girls because they know what girls like.” She glanced over at Heather. “Should we tell him what we do at girl parties?”

“Nah,” Heather grinned. “Keep him guessing.”

Hiccup scowled. “You two are the worst help I’ve ever received.”

The girls laughed, mainly because they knew he would way over think what a “girl party” was. In fact, it wasn’t much of a “party” at all. It would more than likely involve hiding away in one of their huts, changing into the most comfortable clothes possible, and sprawling out on the floor and bed to talk for hours. And it was probable that hair braiding and massages would be involved.

But although the two girls thought that was the best way possible to spend a birthday, they knew very well it was not what Hiccup had in mind.

“What about a surprise party?” Heather suggested.

“I don’t see how it could be very surprising,” Hiccup grumbled. “She knows I’m going to do something. I’ve never forgotten her birthday.”

“She doesn’t know for sure that you’ll remember this time,” Catia said thoughtfully, “Especially since you’ve been forgetting a lot of other stuff lately.”

“I have not!” Hiccup defended himself indignantly. “Name one thing I’ve forgotten!”

“To strap your left shoulder guard on all the way,” she answered flatly.

Hiccup glanced at his shoulder and realized she was right, and he quickly fixed it, his cheeks burning. Heather was giggling so hard she couldn’t breathe, and Catia stood with her arms folded and an “I told you so” smirk. “I do know how to dress myself,” he mumbled, more than embarrassed.

Catia elbowed Heather in the ribs to silence her. “I know. We’ve all been a little scatter brained lately. It’s just a crazy time of year. Which is why Astrid might just think we completely forgot her birthday.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked, imagining Astrid given him a good “how-dare-you-forget-that” punch in the stomach.

“Oh, yes,” Heather said finally. “She is going to have the best birthday ever!”

. . .

Astrid woke up late, yawning and stretching to rouse herself. She glanced out the window and smiled. It was a beautiful day; a perfect day for a birthday. Stormfly plodded over to her bed, nuzzling her affectionately.

“Thanks, girl,” Astrid smiled. “I think you’re going to enjoy today, too. A day off for me is a day off for you.”

She rolled out of bed, pulling on her boots and snapping on her shoulder guards. Her hair was a little frizzy, and she decided to redo the braid. It didn’t take very long, and soon she was headed up to the clubhouse for breakfast.

When she entered, however, there was no one in sight. Confused, she walked into the kitchen. Catia was there by herself, washing some dishes and humming while she worked.

“Hi, Tia,” Astrid said quietly, walking over.

“Oh, hi Astrid!” she smiled. “What have you been doing all morning? We waited for you to come for breakfast, but since you didn’t show up, we had to eat without you. There’s a plate for you over there.”

“Oh…thanks.” Astrid took the plate and walked back to the table, sitting down to eat. Having breakfast all alone wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind. Perhaps she shouldn’t have expected them to wait for her. They still had work to do, and she couldn’t hold that up, birthday or not.

After eating her lonesome breakfast, she left to find Heather. Ever since breaking her ankle, Heather often had to take a break from training to give her foot a rest. Perhaps she would be willing to take a day off as well.

But she had no such luck. Heather was busy helping Fishlegs organized all 718 of his books, and there really wasn’t much for Astrid to do to help. After trying and failing to locate Hiccup, she left to find Dagur. Maybe he would be interested in some axe training. But Dagur was already training with Snotlout, and Astrid really had no interest in hanging around for that. She checked to see if Catia was free, but she was scolding the twins for something, and was carrying a list of things to do.

Astrid was about to go ask if Catia wanted any help, but noticed Hiccup working in the forge. A smile lit up her face. Hiccup never forgot her birthday! He would make time for her, and even if he couldn’t, he would still talk with her while he worked. Besides, she was willing to help him if she could.

She walked up the ramp to the forge and entered, waiting until Hiccup finished pounding on a piece of metal to announce her presence. He saw her standing in the doorway first.

“Hey,” he smiled, pausing his work. “What’s up?”

 _What_? No “ _happy birthday, Astrid?_ ” she thought, feeling somewhat hurt that he didn’t mention it. “Oh, not much,” she shrugged. “Stormfly and I needed some time off, so I freed today up. Do you think you might have time to go flying with us?”

“I really wish I could, but I’ve got an all day project going, and I really need to get it done.” He offered her an apologetic smile.

 _Did you seriously forget?_ “Can I help?”

He glanced around the forge. “Well, there’s not much to do but welding and molding right now. There isn’t really anything for you to do. I mean, you can stay if you want, but you’ll pretty much just have to sit here and listen to me bang on metal for most of the day.”

“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll just go for a solo flight then.” _I can’t believe it. You actually forgot. And just when I was starting to think we could really be more than just friends._ “I might take awhile, so feel free to eat lunch or dinner without me. I’ll be back late.” She knew it wasn’t a big deal. He was just busy. But it still hurt for some reason, and she disappointedly walked over to Stormfly and took off.

It was too late in the day to fly back and celebrate her birthday on Berk with her parents, so she decided to just spend the day with her dragon and make the best of it.

. . .

Hiccup ran to find Catia and let her know that Astrid had left. Now the real preparations could begin. Heather had already started on a cake, and Snotlout and Dagur were sent fishing, and hopefully they would actually come back with fish. Catia was working on presents, or at least the main present.

He walked up to Catia’s hut and opened the door, the thought of knocking first somehow escaping him. Catia gasped and struggled to hide the shirt she was working on. “Oh, it’s just you,” she sighed. “Is Astrid gone?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I feel really bad. She looked so disappointed when I made it seem like I didn’t have time for her.”

“She won’t mind when she finds out what you did,” Catia said with a smile. “Now, do you have any more fabric? Also, can you go get one of Astrid’s shirts for me? I need to measure it.”

“Sure,” Hiccup mumbled, still feeling rather guilty about making Astrid think he forgot about her, even if it was to keep a secret.

He left to dig around in Astrid’s hut, found one of her blue shirts, and walked back to his hut to find more of the red fabric he had used to make his tunics. He was almost positive there was some more in a chest somewhere. He eventually found it, but it was very, very wrinkled and smelled terrible. When he unfolded it, he realized why he hadn’t used the cloth. This was the piece he’d spilled a bottle of ink on.

He explained the issue to Catia, as he passed her Astrid’s shirt. “I guess I’ll just have to make it sleeveless,” Catia decided, laying out the fabric she had, and measuring the shirt so she could cut it.

“We have plenty of time,” Hiccup told her. “Astrid said she would be back late.”

“Oh, perfect!”

“No, it’s not perfect. She obviously thought we forgot about her.”

“Hiccup, just go do the metalwork. If you’re worried she’ll break up with you-”

“Break up with me?!” Hiccup nearly shouted, his cheeks flaming. “We aren’t even together!”

“Sure,” Catia rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say. Just go work on the skulls.”

Hiccup scowled and nearly walked straight into Heather as he stormed out.

“What’s wrong with him?” Heather asked, sitting down to help.

“He’s lovesick,” Catia answered plainly. “Utterly and hopelessly lovesick.”

. . .

Astrid sat by herself, staring out across the ocean. The cold, white-crested waves crashed up on the beach. She was, for lack of better words, bored to death. She didn’t know what to do with herself, other than sulk. That was honestly more fun than doing literally nothing.

She knew it was immature of her to be so upset that her friends didn’t remember her birthday; she wasn’t even very upset about that. She was mostly discouraged because it seemed like they didn’t want her around. Of course, they didn’t say that, but the cold shoulder she had received said it for them.

Maybe she was over reacting. Maybe they didn’t want her to leave at all. But whatever the case, she wasn’t enjoying the day one bit. Astrid leaned back against Stormfly and sighed, muttering “Well, happy birthday to me.”


	2. Chapter 2

The sun set, a light rain beginning to fall. Snotlout and Dagur finally returned with enough fish to last them a week. Catia gave them both a scolding saying they took too much time and now she had to rush to finish cooking.

They apologized and left to help Fishlegs and the twins with the decorations, which currently was a living nightmare. Ruffnut wanted the décor to be animal carcass themed, Tuffnut wanted it to be Dragon Hunter themed, and Fishlegs was shouting about what terrible ideas they were and that he didn’t have the right shade of turquoise to match his sunflower centerpiece.

Heather had finally finished her project and had come to the clubhouse to finished decorating her cake. As she entered the kitchen she noticed Catia stirring up a bowl of frosting.

“What are you doing?” she asked, confused. “I already made frosting for the cake.”

“What cake?” Catia asked, just as confused. “I just started to bake it.”

“Wait, you made a cake?”

“Yeah, with three tiers. Don’t tell me you already did.”

Heather groaned. “Yes. With three tiers.”

“Well, we can’t have two cakes,” Catia said shortly. “But since I know you made the cake for Astrid’s birthday and not out of an attempt to prove your cooking superior, I am open to the idea of combing the cakes.”

“Fine, but only if half the credit goes to me.”

“Deal.”

Heather walked across the room to take her cake down of the shelf and noticed how Catia was cooking the fish. “Really? You’re actually frying it? Why not just boil and season it?”

“Because it tastes better this way,” Catia answered, obviously irritated by Heather’s comment. “Listen, unless you have something that will actually improve this meal, why don’t you go make yourself useful somewhere else.”

“Oh, so you admit the meal needs improving!”

“I don’t believe I said that. However, I did say that you need to be useful in order to be here.”

“I can be useful. You’re just in my way.”

“Okay Heather, we can sit here and keep arguing, or we can agree just to make food so that Astrid can have a decent party.”

Heather stood, debating whether she should agree. Any other time, she would have laughed and continued working, but perhaps now she should focus on getting food prepared. “Okay, but this means that we can’t try to outdo each other on any level. Just for tonight.”

“Agreed.”

. . .

Astrid sighed heavily as she and Stormfly walked back to her hut. She was tired, cold, hungry, sore, and now wet. She shivered as rain dripped down her back, even though she tried to stay underneath Stormfly’s wing. In a word, she was miserable. She currently wanted nothing more than to get out of her wet clothes, wrap up and a blanket and go to sleep.

Everyone else’s hut were dark. They were most likely already asleep, enjoying not being out on such a cold, nasty night. Shivering, she finally made it to the door of her hut and tried to open it, but it was locked. Of course, of course, it was locked. She groaned and turned around, headed for the clubhouse and key to her room. Today simply could not stop getting any worse.

. . .

“Tuffnut! You can’t put the oak cup directly on an oak table,” Fishlegs groaned. “Something needs to separate the colors, for example this white coaster. It gives a nice contrast between the-”

“Contrast, shmontrast, bla, bla, bla!” Tuffnut drawled. “These decorations are so boring!”

“Yeah!” Ruffnut chimed in. “Why can’t we put the dead badger in the middle instead of those stupid flowers?”

“Because Astrid won’t like a dead badger,” Fishlegs replied. Again.

“She won’t like flowers either,” Snotlout chortled. “This is Astrid we’re talking about. Now, if we were to put a statue of me as the centerpiece-”

“I’m going to stop you there,” Fishlegs said, rolling his eyes. “We don’t want her to run away screaming.”

Dagur and Tuffnut laughed, but Ruffnut was still too disappointed to find Fishlegs’ insult amusing. “What is a party without carcass decorations?” she grumbled. “How can you play ‘pin the tail on the Viking’ without a tail? A party isn’t the same without playing tag wearing a yak head.”

“You actually do that?” Dagur asked, pausing his job of stringing blue and yellow Snoggletog lanterns around the room. He looked rather horrified.

“Duh,” Tuffnut answered for his sister. “Why do you think she’s so upset?”

“I really worry about them sometimes,” Dagur shook his head, resuming his work.

“They were dropped on their heads as babies,” Snotlout put it; leaning back against the ladder Dagur was standing on. It tipped, sending Dagur falling to the floor and the lights down with him just as Hiccup walked in.

“What is going on in here?” Hiccup shouted, shocked to find a royal mess in place of the nicely decorated clubhouse as he expected.

“Fishlegs won’t use the animal carcasses so it looks terrible!” Ruffnut pouted from her place sprawled out across several chairs.

“Trust me, Ruff,” Hiccup said, rubbing his forehead. “The last thing this room needs is carcasses. And why aren’t those lights hung? We don’t have much more time!”

A crash came from the kitchen, followed a groan and arguing, obviously Heather and Catia. Hiccup walked in, his eyes widening as he saw them trying to pick the cake up off the ground. It was still together, but half of it was smashed beyond the point of eating.

“I told you not to step back!” Catia scolded, scraping icing off the floor.

“I wouldn’t have had to step back had you not handed me the bowl!” Heather shouted back, doing her best to salvage what was left of their six tier cake. “Great now the fish is burned.”

“What?! I told you to keep an eye on it!”

“I did! Until you made me back into the cake!”

Tuffnut came up behind Hiccup and stood there casually, waiting for a pause in the argument. “Hey, do any of you have a bucket of water?” he asked finally. “Snotlout set the floor on fire.”

“WHAT!?” the three shouted together, forgetting all about the cake and burnt fish.

Hiccup grabbed the pot of boiling water from over the fire and ran it into the other room, finding the corner in a blaze. Fishlegs, Snotlout and Dagur were frantically trying to stamp it out while Ruffnut watched, explaining that the carcasses had cursed them, angry they had not been used.

Hiccup tipped the pot and dumped the contents on the flame, burning his hand on the hot metal. He dropped the pot and hissed through his teeth, suddenly realizing that no one was focused on the now extinguished fire. They were all staring at the door.

He turned, and found Astrid staring back. Her mouth was open, her eyes were wide, and she looked purely bewildered. Nothing was ready. The food was hardly edible, the decorations were destroyed, and she had walked in when they were trying to put out a fire. Her surprise party had failed pitifully.

“Surprise!” Ruffnut and Tuffnut suddenly shouted, as if nothing had gone wrong. “Happy birthday, Astrid! We made you a party! Are you surprised?”

Mouth still open, Astrid nodded dumbly. “You remembered.” she whispered, scanning the room.

“It’s not quite what we planned it to be,” Hiccup started, walking over to her and rubbing his burned fingers gingerly. “We had some technical difficulties.”

“But you remembered,” Astrid repeated, now smiling. “I thought everyone forgot my birthday.”

“That was the point,” Heather said from the kitchen doorway, icing smeared down the front of her clothes. “We thought it would be more surprising that way.”

“Well, you were right. I’m most definitely surprised!”

“It’s not quite the surprise I was hoping you would get,” Hiccup said softly. “Everything’s ruined.”

Astrid turned and threw her arms around him, and for the first time he realized she was soaking wet. “I know you wanted it to be perfect,” she said quietly. “But to me it is. I get to spend my birthday with my friends; that’s all I wanted.” She pulled away smiling, and left to give each of her other friends a thank you hug.

Hiccup smiled as he watched her; she really didn’t mind that everything had gone wrong. The others sat her down in the seat of honor at the head of the table, which had been decorated with sunflowers by Fishlegs, fake bloodstains by Ruffnut, and dragon hunter arrows by Tuffnut. Astrid didn’t mention once how strange it looked.

Catia and Heather brought out the fish, or what they had managed to salvage from the burnt food, suddenly thankful that Snotlout and Dagur had brought back excess. Hiccup grabbed a blanket from one of the shelves and wrapped it around her wet shoulders. “Your majesty,” he quipped jokingly, bowing.

“All hail Queen Astrid!” Fishlegs shouted, overhearing what Hiccup said. Laughing, everyone bowed before sitting down.

“I guess I need a crown then,” Astrid giggled, scanning the table. The first thing she could find was an empty bowl, so she turned it upside down and placed it daintily on her head, as though it were a diamond tiara.

Everyone, of course laughed even harder, and the supposedly ruined party was suddenly the best party any of them had ever attended. They devoured what was left of the cake, and after Astrid proposed they hold a “royal ball” in which everyone had to dance blindfolded. It was a blast until Snotlout tripped and got a bloody nose, and they stopped.

“Astrid,” Heather said finally, “We can stay as long as you like, but whenever you’re ready, we’ve got a girl party planned.”

“Really? What are we waiting for!? My hut, come on!” Astrid excitedly grabbed the key to her hut. They debated on inviting Ruffnut, who had fallen asleep next to her brother, but decided to let her rest. She probably wouldn’t enjoy a girl party much anyway. She was not by any means a talker.

The three girls laughed as they walked to Astrid’s hut, joking about the immense fun they’d already had.

Back at the clubhouse, the boys found themselves suddenly bored. “What do you say we crash that girl party,” Snotlout suggested, trying to balance a wooden plate on his finger.

“How do you know that won’t be even more boring?” Hiccup countered, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t know that I want to get caught up in all that girly stuff.”

“It’s Astrid, Heather, and Catia,” Dagur put in. “How girly can it get?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen any of them act ‘girly.’”

“Exactly,” Snotlout said, the plate clattering to the floor. “We don’t necessarily have to crash the party; just listen to what they talk about. They’re probably talking about us and how hot we are.”

“Oh, sure Snotlout,” Fishlegs chuckled. “Who do think is talking about you? Two of them are already taken.”

“All of them, probably,” Snotlout replied, making a muscle. “The ladies can’t resist me.”

“I say we go down there and prove they aren’t talking about you,” Hiccup decided. “But we will never speak of this to anyone, particularly not the girls. Agreed?”

Everyone did, and they quietly started down to Astrid’s hut.

. . .

Astrid unlocked the door and walked in, telling Stormfly to light the fire. Talking nonchalantly to her friends, she sat down on her bed, and stopped. She glanced behind her, noticing a pair of clothing laid out on the bed. She stood, confused, and missed the excited glance her friends gave one another.

“What’s this?” she asked, fingering the red shirt and fur lined skirt.

“You’re birthday present,” Catia replied. “You told us you would need some new clothes before winter, so we made you some. Everyone helped.”

Astrid picked up the wolf pelt hood, and ran her hand over the soft gray fur. “It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “I love it!” She wrapped it over her head, sighing at how soft it was. “My hair is in the way,” she giggled. “I’ll have to do something about that.”

“That’s an easy fix,” Heather jumped in, hurrying over. “Just style the braid to the side.” With a little rearranging, Heather had moved the braid over Astrid’s left shoulder, and the hood fit nicely.

“It’s a good look on you,” Heather complimented, and Catia nodded as well.

Astrid smiled. “I love the skirt, too. The fur looks so good with the leather. And the skulls! They are so detailed!”

“That’s because Hiccup spent forever on them,” Catia chuckled. “I hope you don’t mind that the shirt is red. I couldn’t find any other material, and he had some leftover from his tunics I guess, so I had to use that.”

“Oh, I don’t care,” Astrid replied, holding the shirt up to herself. “I like red.”

“Especially when it’s on Hiccup,” Heather finished with a grin. There was a sudden knock on the door, and Catia opened it, revealing Ruffnut.

“Hi,” Ruffnut said with a smile. “I just wanted to let you know that the boys are coming down here to eavesdrop on you. Snotlout thinks your gonna talk about how hot he is.”

The other girls laughed and invited Ruffnut inside.

“Nah,” she answered. “I’m tired. I just wanted to tell you what they were up too.” With that she left, trudging sleepily up the path to her hut.

“So what’s the plan?” Heather asked the minute she was gone. “This has a world of potential, we can make them think anything we want them too. Maybe try and convince them that we’re spying on them for Viggo? That would get a great reaction for sure!”

“I think we should give them what they came to hear,” Astrid said, smiling deviously. “They want to hear us talk about how hot they are, so we will, in the dirtiest and most repulsive way possible.”

And so they did. They began the conversation casually, waiting until they were sure the boys were outside and listening. If they were trying to be quiet, they were certainly failing.

“So Astrid,” Heather said, winking at her friend. “Are you and Hiccup finally a thing yet?”

“I don’t even know,” Astrid tried to sound annoyed. “He’s so vague sometimes. I mean, I woke up that one time in his arms and started kissing me, and then the next day I was back in the friend zone. I wish he’d make up his mind.”

“But you do like him, right?” Catia encouraged, glancing at the window to see if she could spot any of the others.

“Heck yeah,” Astrid replied, nearly laughing at her own reply. “Seriously, he needs to take a hint. I keep waiting for him to make a move, but no, he does nothing. He has to know by now that I like him. He’s even caught me staring.”

“So you do think he’s cute,” Heather taunted, even thought she already knew.

“Cute? Are you kidding? He’s straight up hot!”

“Ever seen him shirtless?”

“He doesn’t know it, but yeah.” The all fought the urge to laugh at the sudden noises outside. Astrid had not actually seen Hiccup shirtless, well, maybe once in the forge but that was only a quick glimpse.

“Ooh, six or eight?” Heather pried, obviously referring to his abs.

Astrid stopped for a moment. If she got this wrong, Hiccup would know she was making it up, and that would be mortifying. She glanced frantically between her friends, begging for help.

Catia immediately caught on, and held up six fingers. She had removed Hiccup’s shirt herself, having to treat the wound on his shoulder, and was now glad she had noticed his abdomen.

“Six,” Astrid said haltingly, “but honestly, I think eight is a little overdone. It’s like they’re trying too hard, you know?” She was proud of her save. It sounded relatively realistic.

“Yeah, same with biceps,” Catia went on, trying to change the subject slightly. “There’s a certain point where big muscles are no longer attractive. The proportions have to be right.”

“Exactly,” Astrid added, “though muscles are nothing compared to good hair and a nice butt.”

The other girls had to hold their breath and bury their faces in the pillows to keep their laughter under control.

. . .

Hiccup, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Dagur stood outside Astrid’s hut with their ears pressed up against the wall, listening with horror as the conversation slowly grew dirtier. Hiccup knew that he and his friends could be dirty-minded at times; however he never in his life expected Astrid, Heather, and Catia to be saying what they were. The subject had gotten graphically disgusting, and still the girls went on laughing and talking as if it were a normal, everyday, topic.

But finally the topic turned to one that none of them, none of them, had any interest in hearing.

“So I got up this morning,” Heather was saying, “and I kid you not, there was blood on everything. I spent an hour trying clean it up, and even that didn’t really work.”

“Ug, I feel you,” Astrid went on. “Periods are literally the worst thing on the planet. Like seriously, what’s the point, other than to make life hard twelve weeks out of the year?”

“Actually, believe it or not, there is a point,” Catia told them, and then went on to tell them that point—every teeny, tiny, nasty detail of that point. Fishlegs finally gagged, and the four decided they had heard quite enough.

They were hurrying away when the door to her hut opened and the girls stepped out laughing hysterically. “Too much for you?” they teased, nearly double.

“You knew we were there?” Snotlout shouted back.

“Ruffnut told us you were coming! We thought we’d have some fun!” Astrid hollered.

“You knew we were there and still said all that?” Hiccup asked, still a little queasy from some of their descriptions.

“That’s why we said all that!” Catia laughed, leaning against the wall for support.

“So none of that was for real?”

“Well, except for the period stuff,” Heather called back. “And by the way, I took a nap on your bed, Dagur!”

Dagur’s face screwed up in horror, and he ran off with his friends, who were mentally vomiting as well. But none of them could help but smile as they heard Astrid shout happily in the distance: “BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Finally a lighthearted story! So what did you think? Let me know in the comments.
> 
> Also the rest of the series and will be posted. The next book "Tuff Luck" is coming soon.
> 
> Leave Kudos if you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!
> 
> ~Spinofflady


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